"If something's going to come out, get it out in a hurry," Will said this morning on the "This Week" roundtable. "I do not know why, given that Mitt Romney knew the day that [John] McCain lost in 2008 that he was going to run for president again that he didn't get all of this out and tidy up some of his offshore accounts and all the rest."

Doesn't change my mind on the subject.
The bias media jumps from one blast Romney to another and his Conservative peers are not blasting him.
The biased media will make it appear as if they are but Conservatives are just saying (in their quiet reasonable voices) Romney will have to end up showing them to shut everyone up.

Romney shouldn't submit more than 6 years. Thats what Obama did in 2008.

But it won't. Next "they" will demand to see his medical records!!
Wonder if he will have those sealed like Obama did his.

CW is one of the most closed minded persons I have ever seen. They harped for years about Obama's birth certificate, and now Romney's whining about people wanting his tax returns. He is hiding something and Obama should pound this to the ground in ad after ad. If the Republicans are telling him to release, why doesn't he? His dad said when he ran that every candidate should give 12 years worth of records. What I don't get is when Mitty was vetted for VP, he released them. Why aren't they available now?

Actually I am not so sure he is "hiding" something as much as he does not want folks to see how wealthy he is (as if people who actually read don't know this) or he frankly believes it is none of your dang business :)

Romney, whether he knows it or not, does not pull off "your average guy" when around the masses. For all his family money, GWB pulled it off. He actually, IMO, was more comfortable in blue jeans and shirtsleeves then someone like Romney.

And no it will not change anyone's opinion who believes in "anyone but Obama".

Well CW 6 is better than the 1 he has dug his heels in on derr.
We must live in different dimensions where George Will is not a conservative pundit & criticism isn't the same as slamming but as a Psychiatrist friend once pointed out "don't knock denial it's a useful defense against whats unpleasant or painful"

Ok I'll soften the other part for yah does their chiding permit others like Palin & Haley Barbour to ad to the list that would want him to submit more than a year.

I agree with you Chase. He has already told so many lies that he knows the release of his returns will trigger many more questions that it resolves....starting with residency when he started running for governor.

House there is a topic up top any response to it?
He had a lot of detractors in his own party before being anointed does this free them up for shots? It's truly a simple premise lets see if any of you guys can even get close to it.

Heck no, don't release them. Who cares what liberals think. They aren't going to vote for him anyway. Obama is simply diverting attention from his failed policies by reaching back 20 to 40 yrs for anything he can throw against the wall. Maybe the Romney camp should start running ads with Tony Resko, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and all his Chicago buddies. Let's go with the important stuff, he wasn't born in the US, he's a Muslim, etc.

There is the view that the political spectrum in the US is shaped like a dumb-bell with two huge groups far apart. Reality is a bell curve, with the two extremes rather thin, with the majority solidly in the middle.

Its that middle that decide presidential elections, and having an extraordinarily wealthy man with known off-shore tax haven accounts, $100,000,000 retirement accounts, and no stated plan to move the economy forward, those in the middle of the bell curve are going to wonder what this guy is about. Since just about all voters file income tax returns, thats a way for them to compare themselves and their 'values' with their candidates.

So, for example, they can look at the Obama's returns and see that yes, they did have considerable student loans to pay off, and what they gave to charity etc. We also know that the Obamas were given a remarkably sweet deal on their Chicago house, which raises questions as well on their ethics. All this.

But Romney wants to just stonewall, what with being the uber-wealthy believes he is just beyond all this commoner tax return stuff.

epi, Obama has spent 100 million in attack ads...outspending Romney 4 to 1. Have you seen the polls? Either they haven't had any impact at all, or Romney would have been 20 points ahead of him if he wasn't running them. So, I say, keep the mud flying.

Now K common Bill Kristol suggests that he could get on with showing up Obama's failed policies & take the hit by just swallowing hard & doing it.
Geeze really there's nothing there that you guys couldn't overlook in a heartbeat is there? really? When it comes to him keeping an extra couple of million here or there I would think you would applaud him.
Ah for the good old days of the forum 200 Millions a day trips to India & when that was blown out of the water the pooh flingers claimed it was still a wasted trip. The Endless birth certificate posts.

They are also looking at leadership issues. Why kind of leader will Romney be? The conservatives love to say that if Obama was a good leader we'd be out of this mess, so it is only fair to highlight issues that might indicate what kind of leader Romney might be.

What I find troubling are those people who do not want to know what is in this man's tax returns, after having seen the tax returns of every other presidential candidate. It doesn't compute. Why would you stick your head in the sand on this particular issue? Is it because you know it will be his take-down?

Romney might be playing a dangerous game. To annoy the loyal opposition is one thing, but to bite the hand that feeds you is another. The republicans have a very flawed candidate and they might want to skip this year and concentrate on 2016 where they can find a candidate more to their liking. Even the republicans might be choking at the thought of 8 years of Romney.

Also to be remembered is that Romney is the PRESUMPTIVE candidate. He doesn't have the nomination yet. Although unlikely, the republicans might indeed have a surprise up their sleeve for the convention. Who knows.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who heads all House GOP campaign efforts, told reporters that questions about Romney's holdings were on target, according to CNN.

"His personal finances, the way he does things, his record, are fair game," Sessions said. While he declined to name a specific amount of information or number of years worth of tax returns Romney should release, he called the issue a "legitimate question." Romney has only released his 2010 tax return and had said he will release his 2011 return before the election.
Gotta do the work for "You People"

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) flatly told CNN Thursday that Romney needed to make at least six years worth of returns public and soon.

Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele also called on Romney to release additional returns on MSNBC this week, reasoning that it would put Democratic attacks to rest. The Obama campaign highlighted Steele;s quote in a web video on Romney's Cayman Islands and Bermuda assets.

He's whining over mosquito bites & we know how much he like to tell people to stop whining.
Last Januray it was Rick Perry that asked him to release his taxes so this isn't anything NEW UNDER THE SUN.
Alabama Gov Bentley asked him to release his taxes ( see it's not a difficult question that I asked) Would it open the way fro more republican well look it did. SEE! Then again Bentley was a Santorum fan & Santorum pounded Romney on this during the debate & Romney relented back the said traditionally APRIL is the time candidates will release taxes.
his own words "In history, people have released them around April of the coming year, and that's probably what I'll do," Romney conceded. LOL nahhhhh!

I honestly believe that Mr Romney has not done anything illegal but clearly there is something there he doesn't want to make public. That should be of concern to a voter who wants to understand who and what they are voting for.

I think his personal tax returns will speak to how he views investment, tax loopholes, deductions and investing offshore both personally and at a corporate level. It will also give insight into how he feels about the corporate world. It may indicate to whom he is beholden. That will either support or refute his stated positions on such things. It may be that whatever is in there is totally acceptable to his Republican supporters, and that's OK, but to blindly accept that which you have no knowledge of could prove to be a disaster for the country.

Additionally I agree with the thoughts of the senior Republicans that Labrea references. He is hurting his chances and causing a problem that he could avoid. It "appears" that something in those returns is so damaging it will bury him politically, if there is something that serious then the American people have a right to know it before they go to the polls.

This is no way comparable to the "birther" nonsense which I know you thought was ridiculous too. The American people have a right to understand the financial position of someone asking for their vote.

Who knows what he's hiding but some GOP guy said yesterday, there must be something in there he wants to keep secret. Did he live in his son's basement to establish residency when he ran for office in MA? Very sketchy too. He's a master manipulator not used to be asked to comply because he's way above the rest of the crowd. He knows no Democrats, few Indys and not that many Republicans like him so he has an uphill battle.

Do you mean because he is rich chase? He is rich, he is very very very rich. Which means he doesn't need your money to make himself richer!! Has all of his accountants and tax lawyers taken all deductions etc, of course they have. Just like any of us would do. That isn't what this is about, it's about the fact that he is rich and some are struggling. It's about class warfare. It isn't about look at this guy who worked hard and became rich. It's what we can do in America. It's about look at this rich guy who has more than you, shame on him. We need to take it away!!

And the apology was about calling him a felon, which has proved to be a lie.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact he is rich and I think you know that. I couldn't care less how much money he has but if I was a voter I would care how he earned it and how he dealt with American taxes.

The President nor any of his staff called him a felon.

This is what was said

"Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments," Cutter said, responding to a newspaper report that Romney was listed as Bain Capital's CEO after 1999, when he has repeatedly said he left the private equity firm."

The facts are IF indeed he was NOT the CEO when he signed those papers it would be a misrepresentation to the SEC and that would be a felony. Not sure how you come to the conclusion that this statement is a lie...it's the truth.

After the remarks his campaign said he although was the CEO, largest shareholder and sole owner,he had nothing to do with "day to day" decisions. Of course he didn't that's not what CEO's do, they set strategic direction, policy, make major decisions.

They deliberately chose that misleading language so that when it is proved, as I'm sure it will be, that he was actively at the helm of Bain they will able to say " we didn't say he wasn't we said he didn't handle "day to day decisions ". Misleading the American people which is the second part of what Cutter said!

I'm agreeing on the importance of Romney's returns to this White House esh. Maybe we can find some relevance to the Treasury soliciting prostitutes to be paid for with taxpayer money. Maybe it equals sending guns to drug cartels to be used to kill hundreds of Mexican citizens and an American Border agent. None of these things are as important as Romney's tax returns.

I'm sure you are aware that we can do multiple things at once. What Obama the candidate focuses on and what Obama the President focuses can be different things.

Tax returns and leadership examples = information that most voters find helpful in deciding. But perhaps you'd rather let Romney decide for them what information they have access to? For example, only two returns are good enough for you. Or, it doesn't matter what my company did while I was CEO of it.

Why are you asking that if you agree that he should release them? Obviously, there is no law about how many tax returns a Presidential candidate needs to release. But, of course, you know that. There's that deflection thing again.

There is only precendence that has been set by past Presidential candidates. When a new Presidential candidate does something very different from past precendence, it raises eyebrows. And it should raise eyebrows. Not sure why you can't just admit that and stop the deflection. Are you worried about something that is in those tax returns, MrsK?

"Do you mean because he is rich chase"? The candidates who ran against him in the primaries weren't poverty cases K so that blows that one out of the water they weren't Democrats but they could smell evasion & conflict enough as politicians to go after a fast point. The criticism after the debates were that they wasted the opportunity to prosecute that point.
So playing the envy card ain't going to quite make it!

I would hope that a thinking voter would expect more than the absolute letter of the law from a man they are about to entrust with the responsibilities of the Commander and Chief....character matters! Or at least it should.

Romney boasts of his business skills, but there seems to be some question as to what that meant to the employees of Bain-owned companies. Romney declared a MA address, but there seems to some doubt as to its veracity. Romney wants to cut income taxes, but there's evidence that much income is already taxed at a much lower rate than what is commonly used for W-2 recipients. Romney made public declarations that seem to be at odds with Bain's SEC filing.

All of these issues reflect back on Romney's self-declared expertise and integrity. He chose to promote the image of a skilled businessman; he chose to make lower taxes a feature of his campaign; he is responsible for the SEC filings. Heaven knows if anything will ever surface on the MA residence issue.

Romney will either produce past tax returns - and face criticism if not for a full 10 years - or he will not. He will pay the consequences for his actions, and of being the son of a presidential candidate who did practice full disclosure. If some Republicans see nondisclosure as a path to ruin, that's a issue for the party to debate and decide, and hope to influence Romney's actions.

One issue of the tax returns will be that Romney, far from being a businessman making day-to-day decisions on the running of a company and trying to do right by his customers and employees, was an investor receiving handsome fees and firing employees according investment parameters.

Which leads to another question, how does work in an investment company prepare one for the executive branch of the U.S. government? Romney cannot fire U.S. citizens, the elderly, sick, or disabled. He has pledged an even larger military than we already have, and isn't shy about military adventurism in regards to Iran. All of which points to reduced social services, reduced social safety net, and privatization of government services as the only means to balance the budget and reduce the deficit. NO THANKS!

The candidates who ran against him in the primaries weren't poverty cases K so that blows that one out of the water they weren't Democrats but they could smell evasion & conflict enough as politicians to go after a fast point. The criticism after the debates were that they wasted the opportunity to prosecute that point.

So playing the envy card ain't going to quite make it!

Perfectly sums up the situation in a few sentences. And MsK herself started various threads extolling the virtues of each of the GOP primary candidates as their star was in ascendency. Now they're a bunch of dirty dogs! LOL

Actually hg, you are so right. It's only the dems that are so up in arms over his tax returns. Republicans could care less, we want to be like Mitt...rich lol. And it's increasingly looking like the independents are going with Romney. So I say keep up what you are doing Obama camp!!

You could only care less at the moment were you a Perry supporter during the debates you would have cared, or a Santorum supporter. A little duplicitous projecting the I onto the political stage as a whole.
HG's position is correct to a degree, particularly in the game of US take down politics.
It's just that ONCE MORE the other Republican politicians who ran against him knew it was a fertile field to plow & there was probably a rich (rather than wealthy vein) to exploit there.

Mrs, you better check that before saying it's only the Dems up in arms and I'm not sure I read HG's post (or maybe it's really my post ;) as saying that. There are many leading Republicans who are saying they want him to release the tax data. He is hurting the Republican cause regardless of his reasons and they are ticked!

That's very interesting about Independents moving to Romney.....hadn't heard that. However I did hear today that President Obama leads Romney by 10 points in Ohio with very few undecideds. Guess those Independents didn't get the memo.

Brilliant idea about him announcing his VP running mate now to get control back of the narrative however his "handlers" haven't proven to that bright to date!

Tax returns including those of public figures are private info,
protected by law from unauthorized disclosure.
Starting in 1970 most presidents have chosen to release their returns.....
probably because the opposition demanded it....who knows.

It is not required by law..what is required by law is a financial disclosure.

Who is the retired lawyer on this forum.
He/she should know the legality regarding Romney's returns.

If Romney released returns for 20 years
it wouldn't matter and everyone knows that.

Obama released 6 years ....Romney should release 6 years
no more...no less.
Whats good for the pretender is good for the Mitt.

Why is that necessary to say that CW ? How does that add to the discussion? I'm not sure why you have such disdain for the President but at least show respect for the office.

The fact you are prepared to vote for someone without understanding what he stands for in terms of financial disclosures is OK. Seems however that the majority of Americans disagree and they have the right to demand the information they want before putting anyone into the WH!

Mrs, if you believe that the transcripts from a Magnum Cum Laude graduate of Harvard Law School equals the financial records of someone seeking the highest office of the land , there is absolutely no point in engaging you in a conversation.

Mr Rowney's disclosure of his tax claims has become an issue even with high ranking Republicans. I can't recall any high ranking Democrats being upset that a Magna Cum Laude graduate of a prestigious law school didn't release his transcripts!!!

If Romney doesn't release the documents the issue will continue to grow legs until it becomes so serious it could jeopardize his candidacy. That is not good for the Republican party...but that's OK you cheer him on to his demise 'cause this isn't going away until he makes it go away.

She keeps writing but I keep not reading anything! She keeps trying to steer the orig topic to a topic of her choosing which is after all classic K (pathetic as a technique very Republican) deflect & deny is a sad way to go through life. IMO.
I think most of us concede it's a custom & I think I was just trying to drag some of the sleepwalkers to this isn't new. That During the Debates he was being dive bombed over his cowardly stance on his tax returns. Newt took a bullet as did the other & they dumped on Romney & he slithered through with something I've already posted but had no effect
that he would "probably" release them in April.
Sloppy as a technique it presupposes that the next person to ask for the great revelation would be the Democrats & we can play a game with the Democrats over a now show.
It's the game being played out now.
Nah Michael Steele had it right there's no game there unless you make a game there & this is a mittens game all the way.
If your running for office you know whats coming down the pike you clean the mess up in advance or you prepare for the inevitable. Unless you think your something special or want to play a stupid game. This is for everyone watching a stupid game NO?

Ok chase, I'll try once more and then maybe you will give up...We don't really care. We have seen his financial disclosure. The issue won't continue growing legs, it will just become the only issue that dems can hang their hat on. Voters will get tired of hearing about it when so many more important issues are taking place, but carry on.

Mrsk..Your own party wants him to release the returns. Why don't you? And again Obama's grades are relative? Magna Cum laud and president of Harvard Review aren't enough?. I guess he almost flunked out. Want to see a dummy? Go back to the last guy..your guy.

Posted by chase z6 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 16, 12 at 14:57
Why is that necessary to say that CW ? How does that add to the discussion? I'm not sure why you have such disdain for the President but at least show respect for the office.

The fact you are prepared to vote for someone without understanding what he stands for in terms of financial disclosures is OK. Seems however that the majority of Americans disagree and they have the right to demand the information they want before putting anyone into the WH!
**********************************************************

The vast majority of people demanding to see his returns are Democrats and they aren't going to vote for him. They are just nosey and waiting for one tidbit to jump on in glee.
Republicans are not demanding anything of him.

That "Republicans Demanding" wording is coming from the Democrats.
Some Republicans are saying he should get it over with, submit returns and shut "them" up.

But we all know that won't do it.

Lets not even go there with the statement of voting someone into office not knowing where he stands on finances.

A successful wealthy businessman like Ronmey is a much better vote even without the returns, than a community organizer and absent Senator that we have had "trying" to run a country.

As for my disdain for Obama....I wish he could have done one thing in the last 4 years to have earned my respect.
He had to earn it. Thats the way it goes .
There is no respect there none.

(For those that are not from the US. She filed separate because of a remarriage to Kerry as a widow she had a large income from her first husband.)

Keep in mind this is Fox......

In an interview on Fox News Channel Monday morning, Romney -- under pressure from not only the Obama campaign but also some in his own party to release additional tax returns -- suggested he is the victim of a double standard.

"John Kerry ran for president; you know, his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars -- she never released her tax returns," Romney said. "Somehow this wasn't an issue."

In fact, Heinz Kerry's reluctance to release tax returns, which she files separately from her husband, was a major story line during the 2004 presidential race. She ventually made public the first two pages of her 2003 return, which showed she earned $5.1 million that year, almost all of it from interest and dividends on investments. She paid $627,150 in federal taxes in 2003, only 12.3 percent of her total income.

Heinz Kerry inherited a vast fortune from her first husband, the late Senator H. John Heinz III of of Pennsylvania, whose family founded the HJ Heinz Company. Heinz Kerry's net worth was estimated at more than $500 million at the time of the election, and for months Republicans pushed aggressively for her to release tax documents, arguing they were critical brush strokes in a portrait of the Kerrys' collective wealth.

Wade criticized Romney for invoking Heinz Kerry as a standard for tax disclosure.